The biggest lighting purchase by Nicole and Bob Drummond, above, was a trio of pendant lights hanging in the staircase, which was also brightened by adding a skylight to draw in natural light.Wayne Cuddington
/ Ottawa Citizen

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Light is a home's best friend and the unassuming dimmer is a powerful ally.

Just ask Nicole and Bob Drummond, both 57, who recently spent a hefty $365,000, lightening up their 24-year-old home. Sitting on a big lot on a quiet street in the heart of Orléans, the couple decided on a radical renovation to stay in the neighbourhood. Starbucks, the grocery store and the LCBO are down the road and there is a park across the street.

They hired Gerhard Linse (gerhardesign.com) to lead the project, in which almost every wall in the 2,162-square-foot home was rearranged during four hectic months in 2010. Rose-coloured carpeting was carted away and the Salvation Army trucked off boxes stuffed with lamps and every stick of furniture collected while raising two sons.

The couple and Nicole's mother, Rose Lecour, moved out and crews moved in, taking the interior back to the studs, creating a front office and expanding the kitchen across the back of the house.

A stuffy, dark house is now open and filled with new furniture, a drop-dead gorgeous kitchen and lots of light.

There is the natural variety light that floods through the back windows and a patio door and filters through glass blocks set into a kitchen wall. A new skylight over a curvy staircase has turned a dark entrance into a sunny zone.

Then there is the artificial light generated by glass and chrome pendants, silver wall sconces and lots and lots of pot lights.

The retired Air Force colonel and his wife, who is still working as a mortgage broker, start to count, walking from room to room. There are seven pot lights in the den, five in the two-storey entrance, 10 in the kitchen and five in the neighbouring family room.

There are smaller pots under the dark kitchen cabinets, washing light down over red glass-block tiles and even smaller pot lights inside the cabinets, highlighting favourite pieces of china and glass.

"They used to be packed away and we never saw them," says Nicole Drummond.

She remembers sitting down with Linse before the first workman came through the front door. "We talked for several hours about light and how I used the kitchen. He asked where I would prepare dinner, where I read the newspaper, what kind of furniture I planned for the family room. Then he made a lighting plan.

"There aren't any shadows when you are in the kitchen because the pot lights are in the correct place," she says. "There is no shadow on the paper when you are reading at the kitchen bar and there is no glare in your eyes or on the screen when watching television."

Linse introduced added convenience with three-way switches, allowing the couple to turn lights on and off from different locations. "It saves a lot of walking," says Drummond, "especially when you have pots in your hands."

Then there are the dimmers. They are mounted on every light in the house. "You can have too few lights, but never too many," says Linse. "If there is too much light, adjust it down with dimmers. They add instant ambience."

In a plan to declutter table tops, there are only two pairs of lamps in the house, including a crystal set in the master bedroom.

PAGEBREAKThere is the regular switch on the lamp, but also a low wall switch, set within easy reach if someone is reading at night. "I didn't even notice that dimmer," says the colonel during a tour of the master suite, which includes a workout room and elegant bathroom. He points out dimmers and switch controls, clearly enjoying playing with the technology.

"The house is brand new again," he says. "Before it was dark inside. Now, it is a pleasure to come home."

Although a lot of planning went into the location of lighting, they were careful spenders. They splurged at Marchand Lighting Electric, spending $1,500 on a colourful trio of pendant lights hanging in the staircase.

Then they shopped carefully, spending about $1,500 at Multi Luminaire for almost all of the fixtures in the house, starting with frosted white glass and silver pendants over the kitchen bar, a complimentary single frosted glass fixture over the dining room table, silver wall sconces in the family room and pendants in the wild red powder room.

Pot lights were extra.

"We didn't spend a lot, but they look good," says the colonel.

Budget for lighting is always a problem, says Linse. "Most leave it to the end of a project and by then they have blown their budget. Good lighting takes careful planning from the very start of a project."

It doesn't have to be beyond pricey if you use a lot of pot lights, dimmers and layer lighting for different tasks, says the designer, who entered the Drummond house in design awards held last fall by the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association. The house was a top contender.

"The right lighting can make a space sing," says Linse. "It can make a dull space become a stunning space. It is the wow factor in design if you do it right."

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